Next week, there will be a really big show in Toronto. University of Toronto professor Jordan Peterson will be debating Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek. Bob Hepburn writes:
Tickets for the April 19 event went on sale in March for the 3,100-seat Sony Centre venue and instantly sold out. Online ticket resellers are now charging up to $950 for a seat. So popular is the debate that Peterson and Zizek are live-streaming it around the world — at a cost of $14.95 per view.
It’s another in a long line of sold-out shows for Peterson, who shot to fame in 2016 when he criticized legislation aimed at protecting gender identity and openly refused to use people’s preferred pronouns.
Peterson says he's doing nothing to promote hate:
For years, he has insisted he’s done nothing to promote racism, misogyny, Islamophobia or a stream of other issues that stoke the fires of the far right. That may be true in a strict sense.
Troubling, though, is the fact Peterson has done little if anything to distance himself from white supremacists, racists and bigots. Nor has he done anything to silence those who spread their hate on social media and who cite his writings and lectures as “proof” that they are on the right path.
The worst example of this is a photo taken in New Zealand a few weeks before a white nationalist murdered 50 Muslims in terrorist attack last month on two Christchurch mosques. The photo shows Peterson with his arm around the shoulder of a man wearing a T-shirt with the words “I’m a Proud ISLAMAPHOBE” on the front.
The photo made waves:
Cambridge University withdrew its offer of a visiting fellowship. Cambridge vice-chancellor Stephen Toope said the New Zealand photo was a “casual endorsement by association” of Islamophobia and the message was “antithetical” to the work of the Faculty of Divinity, which made the fellowship offer.
Outraged, Peterson accused the school of “signalling their solidarity with the diversity-inclusivity-equity mob,” adding it was “kowtowing to an ill-informed, ignorant and ideologically addled mob.”
And Peterson's anger has made him rich:
Peterson has also become insanely rich touting what some critics have called half-baked ideas and “the greatest scam of our time.” He has 1.16 million followers on Twitter, 1.5 million YouTube subscribers and nearly 3 million copies have been sold of his book, 12 Rules of Life.
Proof that the Peacable Kingdom is not so peaceful.
Image: The Toronto Star
